The licence of Skye Bank has been revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Its liabilities, assets and management will be transferred to a bridge bank, Polaris.
The new bank, Polaris has been licenced to carry on the activities of the distressed bank.
The Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, while announcing the development on Friday, explained that the step was taken as a result of the failure of the owners to shore up the bank’s capital.
He disclosed that the bank had earlier been given a N350 billion intervention in July, 2016.
Said Emefiele: “Skye Bank requires urgent recapitalisation as it can no longer continue to live on borrowed times with indefinite liquidity support from the CBN. We have decided to establish a bridge bank, Polaris Bank, to assume the assets and liabilities of Skye Bank. The strategy is for AMCON to capitalise the bridge bank and begin the process of sourcing investors to buy out AMCON. By this decision the licence of Skye Bank is hereby revoked.”
The Managing Director and Chief Executive of Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, explained that the idea of a bridge bank was to protect the interest of depositors of the bank.
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He stated too that the bridge bank would also ensure that no job would be lost as a result of the withdrawal of the licence of Skye Bank.
Polaris bank, he said, would maintain its staff, but under a new contract.
Speaking further, the CBN boss added: “As a responsible and responsive regulator and in consultation with the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), we have decided to establish a bridge bank, Polaris Bank, to assume the assets and liabilities of Skye Bank. The strategy is for AMCON to capitalize the bridge bank and begin the process of sourcing investors to buy out AMCON. By this decision, the licence of the defunct Skye Bank is hereby revoked.
“We wish to assure all depositors that under this arrangement, their deposits shall remain safe and that normal banking services shall continue in the new bank on Monday, 24th September, 2018, to enable customers to transact their businesses seamlessly.”
